King Soopers workers to go on 14-day strike starting Thursday

King Soopers workers at 77 stores along the Front Range plan to walk out on Thursday, starting a two-week strike over unfair labor practices.

“This strike is about holding one of the largest corporations in America accountable when they break the law and cause harm to workers and our customers,” UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova said Monday in a news release. The strike, she added, will  “allow everyone to understand our concerns, and give the employer time to right their wrong.”

In the past week, employees at King Soopers stores in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder, Parker and other cities voted overwhelmingly to authorize the union to strike. 

The two-week strike would involve 10,000 employees at 77 stores and begin at 5 a.m. Thursday. Workers from stores in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties and the cities of Boulder and Louisville will be part of the walk out.

Since workers in Pueblo and Colorado Springs voted over the weekend, they are not part of the strike that starts this week. Those workers could join later, at which time the union would make an announcement.

Negotiations, which began in October, hit the wall Jan. 16, more than a week after the first labor contracts had expired. 

King Soopers management had offered their “last, best and final” offer, which added 25 cents to boost pay raises for retail clerks by $1.50 an hour, among other changes. That would increase the average hourly wage to $29.48 for top-rate clerks. The offer expired Jan. 31.

In a statement Monday evening, the company said, “Despite King Soopers urging UFCW Local 7 to give their members a voice by allowing them to vote on the company’s Last Best and Final offer the Union has allowed the company’s offer to expire, without providing a single counter wage proposal, and has once again chosen disruption and uncertainty by scheduling a work stoppage.”

Union leaders had called the offer “inadequate,” because the amount would only boost pay for some workers, not all. The union also said King Soopers hasn’t done enough to address “severe staffing shortages,” or to ensure workers in the stores feel safe. The union has filed unfair labor practices against King Soopers for refusing to bargain with the National Labor Relations board. 

Other unfair labor practices include “illegally threatening members with discipline” for wearing union clothing or union buttons, surveilling workers in discussions with union staff and “gutting $8 million in retiree health benefits for wage increases for active workers,” according to the union.  

King Soopers management filed their own unfair labor practice charges against the union for causing disruptions, such as mentioning a strike back on Dec. 17, and rejecting company offers without providing their own proposal for the workers, said the company.

A planned two-week walkout would be longer than the nine-day strike in 2022. More workers at stores outside the Denver metro area could join in as union negotiators see fit. Also, contracts for workers in Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and Loveland expire Feb. 15.

UFCW represents 12,000 King Soopers and City Market employees in Colorado. Kroger owns 118 King Soopers and 32 City Market stores in Colorado. Not all are unionized.